Jill Soloway, creative force behind Transparent and all around badass, has said and will say everything I'd ever want this blog to broadly communicate, and much better than I will. She's a brilliant filmmaker, a brave artist, and she has the felicitous habit of delivering beautiful, impassioned speeches that make you want to go outside and throw lawnchairs at patriarchy.
Check out this sumptuous morsel about women in film:
"Obviously, besides trying to bring other women into your work, when you pick up the camera and share your voice, it heals the world. It’s not funny anymore what’s going on with us. It’s immoral, the way that we are kept from our voices. It’s not just a matter of our numbers. There is a real all-out attack on us having subjectivity, so I just beg everybody to be relentless in their pursuit of their voice."
Sharing your voice HEALS THE WORLD. Women must relentlessly pursue their own voice. She is enveloping us in these gorgeous calls to action.
Or munch on this tasty nugget about women's power as directors:
"I came into most of my power as a filmmaker when I realized that all I needed to do was make a safe space for people to have feelings. And that’s feminine energy. That’s mommy energy. That’s OUR birthright. Our wombs, our space-making, crucible containing bodies...What I’m talking about is no more imitating men’s style or competing with them on their terms, instead reinvent at every turn."
And she continues on this theme that the feminine is a gift to filmmaking with this priceless advice:
It was shockingly, frighteningly easy for me to realize that I could invite actors into their risk spaces by leading with receiving, gathering, feminine, space-creation energy.
New rules. You CAN cry at work, in fact, you must cry at work, in fact if you’re going to make a movie, do me a favor and think of it “as bring your tears to work day”, hell while you’re at it, “ hashtag #bringyourpussytoworkday”, every day. You’re gonna need it."
BRING YOUR PUSSY TO WORK EVERY DAY. I would get that as a face tattoo if I could guarantee it would only be interpreted in context. I mean, that's fucking awesome.
Soloway literally calls for a "matriarchal revolution," an overthrow of the male gaze and of Hollywood's insistence on exclusively-male subjectivities. All it takes is brave, awesome women to create characters in their own images and stories in their own voices.
It's clear why Soloway thinks the revolution is possible, and it's clear why she think it's necessary. The past year, on some fronts, has been awesome for women in media. The box office prowess of female-directed projects Pitch Perfect 2 and Fifty Shades of Gray. The critical and commercial success of female-centered films like Trainwreck and Mad Max: Fury Road. Rich, thoughtful, celebratory depictions of women on TV in Parks and Recreation, The Honorable Woman, Transparent, and countless others. If we assume that Hollywood is an industry invested in its own survival, we can hope that 2015 is a turning point for women in film as executives finally realize that female-oriented films are financially-viable and considerably delicious. No better time to stage a revolution than on the wings of these recent triumphs.
But in general, despite the wealth of offerings out there, we're not watching female-directed films and major studios aren't meaningfully hiring women behind (or often in front of) the camera. In 2014, only 2 of the top 100 films were directed by women, and consequently, less than 20 percent featured a female protagonist. We know that women have made and can make awesome cinema; we've seen it. But year-in and year-out, Hollywood seems to regularly forget or ignore the successes of female directors, and audiences never seem to question who is behind the story being told. If this blog accomplishes anything for those who read it, I hope it's a reminder to pay attention to the creators of the stories you absorb, a call to seek out diversity in subjectivities and perspectives, and a chance to discover and rediscover a lot of awesome movies crafted by women.
And maybe you'll remember to bring your pussy to work tomorrow. Maybe you'll celebrate the feminine and the gift of power, leadership, and direction that's based in sharing, empathy, and creation.Maybe we'll both cry-or-not-cry like a girl. Maybe you'll turn your money into activism by seeing one of these 2015 films directed by women.
Or maybe you'll just think more about the stories we tell and who should have access to telling them.
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